Meet The Lab With Charlie Brown

Thu 13 July, 2017

Charlie Brown, Sound

The Creative Associates of NST Laboratory are celebrating what Southampton makes now! Their upcoming performance of I Won’t Make It On My Own will be on the main stage at Nuffield Southampton Theatres 5-7 October. We met up with Charlie to find out more...

Tell us about yourself.
Hi, I’m Charlie and I’m the Lab Associate Sound Designer. I’ve been working in theatre for about 5 years now and came from a musical background touring in bands - which was amazing! After graduating from Bristol with a degree in music, I got into theatre and producing own music. From working as a technician at NST I really got into sound design work, which led to me taking up sound design on a freelance basis as well.

What’s your role on the project?

I actually have quite a mixed role on I Won’t Make It On My Own. When we’re starting with absolutely nothing, just a few ideas as a response piece to bits of theatre that have already happened it can really go in any direction. I have a big impact on anything involved from lighting to stage design to what this show is going to be about which has been a great experience. I’ve also been involved with the gathering of information - what questions are we asking, what research are we going to do and ultimately what are people making now?

What interested you most about working on this project?
The fact we’ve completely started a show from scratch has been very interesting. Having nothing, going through a complete research and development process, seeking funding, figuring out designs, where the audience are sitting and getting to the endpoint ready to open to the public has really given us the whole experience of what it means to stage a professional show.

Have you faced any challenges during this project?

Tonnes. The theme we are talking about, the value we get from creating or making something. We're still trying to answer that question ourselves. At the minute that's our biggest challenge, having to create workshops and ask these questions to get tools to ask questions within the show. Questionnaires, workshops, discussions, it all takes time and is part of a long development process but will be worth it in the end.

What have you enjoyed most about being an Associate at NST?
The team I work with! Everyone is full of ideas and incredibly creative individuals. They are all very welcoming and accepting of other people and we trust each other with ideas.